The Development of Flexible Social Skills as the Basis for the Formation of Civic Identity of Primary School Students

Introduction. The article, which aims to study the formation of the activity component of the civic identity of younger schoolchildren, considers the development of flexible social skills as one of the ways of civic and patriotic education. It is emphasized that flexible social skills can ensure the success of the process under study, provided that an appropriate meaningful context is created. Methodology and research methods. To achieve the purpose of the study, the following methods were chosen: the method of unfinished sentences and the modified method of “Unfinished story” (G. A. Uruntayeva and Yu. A. Afonkina), which made it possible to assess the ability of younger schoolchildren to make decisions when it is necessary to make the right choice from a variety of alternatives and their ability to show interest in a particular activity and the desire to engage in it in order to achieve the result of an external or internal goal of activity, which are indicators of the formation of the activity component of the civic identity of younger schoolchildren. Results. The article highlights the role of flexible social skills in the process of civic identity formation, and in particular, its activity component. In the course of the conducted empirical research, the levels of formation of the activity component of the civic identity of younger schoolchildren have been determined. The predominance of elementary and acceptable levels of formation of the activity component of civic identity among younger schoolchildren is stated. Conclusions. The paper substantiates the relationship between the processes of civic and patriotic education and the development of flexible social skills in younger schoolchildren. The emphasis is placed on ensuring the success of the formation of the activity component of civic identity, provided that the forms of work used to develop social flexible skills are enriched with relevant content.